21^st century society is subject to constant change, and consequently so too are the traditional educational institutions of home and school. The current family configuration is delegating many of its responsibilities on to educational centres. Schools, meanwhile, increasingly see themselves as playing a purely informative role in shaping citizens. There are many reasons to take interest in this issue: as Stevenson and Baker (1987), Smith, Atkins and Connell (2003) and ourselves have noted (Gomariz, Parra, García Sanz, Hernández Prados and Pérez Cobacho, 2008), the level of parental involvement in schools has a direct correlation with student attainment.  In particular, they have a clear positive influence on motivating children to learn, improving attention and concentration (Fantuzzo, Mcwayne, Perry and Childs, 2004), and not to mention enhancing social and emotional development (Garnefski and Diekstra, 1996).

Education’s challenge now is to create a project which aims to benefit children and adolescents in developing as individuals, and in order to do so its institutions must unite under this common purpose. Both parents and teachers have stated that a greater focus on the development of social skills, and an increased interaction between family and school are key to confronting this current and emerging issue. According to Torio (2004), a dialogue is needed between the two institutions of home and school to establish common ground, narrow their targets, and create a more fluid two-way flow of information.  In this way, parents may have a more active participation in the educational centres of their children.

The establishment of mutual collaboration between parents and teachers is the responsibility of both parties (Lareau, 1987; AHoover-Dempsey, Bassler and Brissie, 1992; Adams and Christenson, 2000).  We have already addressed the role of families in the education of their children (Garcia Sanz, Gomariz Vicente, Parra Martínez and Hernández Prados, 2010), and as regards to the teachers, they also have a responsibility to maintain good communication links with these families and encourage their integration into the educational community. Therefore, we believe one role of teaching staff should be to promote positive relations and obligations between themselves and parents, with the purpose of both knowing their mutual needs and responding to them.

In studying the following research question ‘Should teachers facilitate the integration of parents into their children’s schools?’, our aims were to:

1.       Verify the reliability and validity of our research methods.

2.       Analyse the knowledge that teachers possess regarding their students’ lives.

3.       Investigate the extent to which tutors encourage parental involvement in school life.

4.       Ascertain the level of provision teachers give for families to participate in their children’s schools.

5.        Know if teachers are promoting a positive relationship between parents and schools.

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